LG G4 vs Sony Xperia Z4: Full specs comparison

The LG G4 was officially announced yesterday at a dual event in New York and London, showing the fourth iteration in the ‘G’ line and the successor to the LG G3.

Another recently launched device (with much less shazam) is the Xperia Z4, Sony’s tame successor to the Xperia Z3 which may not be the real successor. We put them head-to-head to see who is the victor.

Design

The LG G4 and Xperia Z4 feature remarkably different designs, while the G4 is wild with its multi-colored leather and plastic options, the Xperia Z4 keeps clean with the OmniBalance design and a few primary Sony colors.

Sony has always been a great manufacturer when it comes to design, even if they lack the adventure and gusto of LG and Samsung. It allows customers to feel comfortable that every year there won’t be any massive changes, unlike LG who is prone to making changes to keep scrapping for the top spot.

One thing the LG G4 does offer more is the screen, with a edge-to-edge display unlike the rather bezel heavy design of the Xperia Z4. For those that like the front of the phone to be nothing but display, the LG G4 is the winner.

Otherwise, the Xperia Z4 offers a comfortable and stylish dual-glass front and back with metallic chassis, giving it a more rigid feel than the LG G4 with its plastic and leather covers.

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Display

Sony decided to stick with the 1,920 x 1,080 display for the Xperia Z4, despite competitors adding 2K displays to the newest smartphones. The LG G4 is one of those competitors adding the 2K display, featuring a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution panel.

Even though the 1080p panels can have some allure to them, like more battery life, on a pixel-to-pixel battle the LG G4 wins hands down. The True HD-IPS display also offers much more colour accuracy, but that does come with the downside of not having a large contrast ratio like the Triluminos display on the Xperia Z4.

We would go with the LG G4 on a purely pixel basis, but the Xperia Z4 will most likely result in better battery life and less potential issues with the display down the road.

Camera

Even though Sony is the king of image sensors, the LG G4 offers a wide range of camera stats to make fans second guess the Xperia Z4. The LG G4 has a 16-megapixel sensor with f/1.8 aperture lens - one of the best in the business. It also features optical image stabilisation and phase detection for less blur in the images.

Sony’s sensor is a 21-megapixel shooter but comes without some of the luxuries the LG G4 offers, like OIS, an f/1.8 lens or dual-LED flash. Even though we feel more comfortable with a Sony camera, the truth is the LG G4 offers much more potential to be a great camera, at times.

Consistency or quality is the real question here, while the Xperia Z4 will give you decent shots 80 per cent of the time, the LG G4 might only give you decent shots 50 per cent of the time - but those shots that are decent come out better on the LG G4.

Under The Hood

The Xperia Z4 added an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 2,930 mAh battery. On the LG G4 side, we have a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 3,000mAh battery.

To break that down, the Xperia Z4 is slightly more powerful, although the LG G4 has a slightly bigger battery. The battery life crown still goes to the Xperia Z4 since it runs on a 1080p display - also Sony has become a connoisseur of keeping more than one day of battery life without struggle.

Verdict

The LG G4 is much more bold, interesting and vivid, it is more than just the bare performance, it is all of LG’s ideas bundled up into a package that is surprisingly good looking on both a hardware and software side.

Sony’s Xperia Z4 on the other hand is meek, timid and simple. It offers decent performance, a well designed bundle of hardware and software and will not let you down in a rush, but when people look at the device, they don’t see flair or imagination, they see the same thing Sony has been selling for three years in a slightly better package.

For display nuts, the LG G4 is the winner, but when it comes to performance, battery life and design, the Xperia Z4 takes a slight edge.